Kurt Busch, for the first time in his life, went airborne Sunday at Talladega. Near the end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the famed track, he got clipped, then flipped the No. 78 car of Denver’s Furniture Row Racing, eventually spinning and landing on top of another car.

It was a spectacular wreck and it ruined what was shaping up to be a winnable race for Busch.

“I’m ok but mad that (we were) robbed of a good finish (we) deserved,” Busch said on Twitter.

Busch was fourth with five laps remaining and he had the inside track in the second row with drivers three-wide entering a turn. But rookie Ricky Stenhouse tried to pass JJ Yeley on the outside, bumping Yeley all the way back through traffic, where he hit Busch at the back right rear tire.

“We just got hit from behind, and along for the ride we went,” Busch said.

The Denver team in recent seasons had farmed out their pit crew from the Stewart-Haas Racing team. But now, FRR will have its own over-the-wall crew for Busch. The six-man crew will work out of Mooresville, N.C.

Regan Smith shakes hands with Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario after Smith threw out the first pitch at a game earlier this season in Denver. (Special to The Denver Post)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the No. 88 car for Sunday’s race at Martinsville — but Denver’s Regan Smith will be without a ride.

Earnhardt was cleared Tuesday by a neurosurgeon to start racing again, after he missed the past two weeks to recover from two concussions, including one suffered in a 25-car pile-up on the last lap of the Oct. 7 race at Talladega.

The injury snapped Earnhardt’s streak of 461 consecutive starts, marking the first time a Cup event did not include an Earnhardt in the field since Sept. 3, 1979.

Smith, the former driver of Denver’s No. 78 car for Furniture Row Racing, took Earnhardt’s spot behind the wheel at Charlotte and Kansas.

Kurt Busch, rather amazingly, fit in just about every major sports meme of the past three years into one answer.

The former NASCAR champ and newest driver of the No. 78 car for Furniture Row Racing, on Friday was asked about moving to the Denver-based garage. He said:

“I had the wrong approach I think in the beginning of the season. I was following my Zen master Charlie Sheen and that wasn’t going very well. I had to look around and then I followed a fellow most top 10 hated athlete guy LeBron James. He brought his talents down to Miami and won the championship down there.

I’m going to use that motivation, I’m going to take my talents to Denver and bring the championship out there.

Then I decided that I didn’t need Charlie Sheen so I’m going to look at a new Zen master, I found him, it’s Bryce Harper. 19-year-old phenom out of Las Vegas, he is the Nationals guy that has helped their team get into the playoffs. He is so wise he told the media ‘no more clown questions. I’m not going to answer any clown questions.’ I’m really looking up to a 19-year-old Bryce Harper to help me through all this.”

Busch was introduced at his first Furniture Row news conference Friday morning in Dover, Del., with team general manager Joe Garone.